Reaching
for the Moon tells
the story of the explosive love affair between Pulitzer Prize winning poet
Elizabeth Bishop and Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares in 1950s
Brazil. The film takes you deep into the price and struggle of creativity and
gives an interesting look back at a woman whose life we in the public know very
little about. It is nice to see Miranda Otto on the big screen and she
embodies Bishop with ferocious intensity. (Melissa Silverstein)

Go
for Sisters

Bernice
(LisaGay Hamilton) and Fontayne (Yolonda Ross) grew up the closest of friends,
but time sent them down different paths. Twenty years later, those paths cross:
Fontayne is a recovering addict fresh out of jail, and Bernice is her new
parole officer. When Bernice’s son Rodney goes missing on the Mexican
border, his shady associates all in hiding or brutally murdered, Bernice
realizes she needs someone with the connections to navigate Rodney’s world without
involving the police and turns to her old friend. The pair enlist
the services of disgraced ex-LAPD detective Freddy Suárez (Edward James Olmos)
and plunge into the underbelly of Tijuana, forced to unravel a complex web of
human traffickers, smugglers, and corrupt cops before Rodney meets the same
fate as his partners. (Press Materials)

How
I Live Now

Set
in the near-future UK, Ronan plays Daisy, an American teenager sent to stay
with relatives in the English countryside. Initially withdrawn and alienated,
she begins to warm up to her charming surroundings, and strikes up a romance
with the handsome Edmund (George MacKay). But on the fringes of their idyllic
summer days are tense news reports of an escalating conflict in Europe. When a
nuclear device is detonated, the UK falls into a violent, chaotic military
state, and Daisy finds herself hiding and fighting to survive. (Press
Materials)

The
Book Thief

Based
on the beloved international bestselling book, The Book Thief tells
the story of an extraordinary, spirited young girl sent to live with a foster
family in WWII Germany. Intrigued by the only book she brought with her, she
begins collecting books as she finds them. With the help of her new parents and
a secret guest under the stairs, she learns to read and creates a magical world
that inspires them all. (Press Materials)

Filmmaker Jenni Gold, who
herself suffers from a form of muscular dystrophy, explores images of
disability in the documentary CinemAbility. From my L.A. Times review:
“Narrated by actress Jane Seymour and packed with A-list interviewees, this
exhaustive and eye-opening documentary explores images of the physically
disabled on TV and in the movies. Because cinema’s earliest stories about
disability now strike us as patently offensive – popular tropes included
supposedly handicapped beggars who faked their infirmities and blind girls who
miraculously regained their eyesight as a reward for virginal behavior – the
film’s overall narrative is one of rocky but steady progress.” (Inkoo Kang)

A Case of You - Directed by Kat Coiro

Director Kat Coiro explores love, Brooklyn-style, in the indie rom-com A Case of You. Justin Long and Evan Rachel Wood star as cutesy hipsters whose coffee shop-born love might not withstand his insecurities about not being cool enough for her. From my Village Voice review: “The script takes a hoary sitcom trope - a boy goes to great lengths to find out what the girl he's smitten with likes so he can pretend to like those things, too - and takes it to its logical extreme.” Like so many romantic heroes, Long eventually realizes that deception is a pretty bad first step in wooing a girl. (Inkoo Kang)

Ghosts in Our Machine -
Directed by Liz Marshall (doc)

Ghosts in our Machine is an extremely
upsetting yet moving film about how we treat animals. It tells the story
of Jo-Ann McArthur, a photographer, who has dedicated her life to showing the
disturbing treatment of animals. After watching the film, there is no way
you will look or thinks about animals the same way again. (Melissa Silverstein)